Week 1: Sunday 15 July to Sunday 22 July 
Week 2: Sunday 22 July to Sunday 29 July
Week 3: Sunday 29 July to Sunday 5 August
Week 4: Sunday 5 August to Sunday 12 August

Please put these dates in your diary. Booking for XUK English will be open soon.

If you have any questions please let us know and we’d be delighted to chat to you…

Week 1: Sunday 8 July to Sunday 15 July 
Week 2: Sunday 15 July to Sunday 22 July 
Week 3: Sunday 22 July to Sunday 29 July
Week 4: Sunday 29 July to Sunday 5 August
Week 5: Sunday 5 August to Sunday 12 August
Week 6: Sunday 12 August Saturday 18 August

Please put these dates in your diary. Booking for XUK will be open soon and this year there will be an additional early booking discount for children and teens. So watch this space…….

If you have any questions please let us know and we’d be delighted to chat to you…

Also a massive thank you to our wonderful staff team – they are enthusiastic, energetic, caring and friendly and have provided amazing activities for all the campers to do for the past 6 weeks.  We are so thankful for all your hard work and we hope to see you again soon!

Transfer from XUK English: Arrived at XUK
St Pancras: Arrived at XUK
Finchley: Arrived at XUK

We’re fully under way with our first evening activity of Week 6 – Initiative Games!  Welcome everyone and here’s to a fantastic week!!!

We also celebrated the achievements of our English Language students who have had a marvellous week and written the best newsletter yet!  With interviews with kids and staff as well as a cartoon about life on camp, it’s made a great read as we eat our dinner in the dining hall!

The disco has just finished and we are due to say our goodbyes tomorrow – to kids and some members of staff too.  We are really sad to say goodbye to Harriet, Vicki, Geoff, Lucy B, James, Rommany and Teresa – they have been an amazing part of our staff team here and we hope they will come back next year to see us all again!

It’s an exciting day for us though as we’re about to start the FIRST EVER WEEK 6 at XUK!!   BRING IT ON!!!

Matteo, from France, as an elephant!

Amy with Lujain!

Alvaro...

Abdul posing in his costume

The students selected to be the models, walked down the “cat walk”, and the remaining students of the group had to give an oral presentation about how they had come up with their ideas. Their were five students on each team, and the green and blue team tied! The points will be added to their point total for the end of the week, and the kids are really looking forward to seeing what their score will be, as we’ve had a tight race with all their tasks!
Special thanks to Amy who led and created the fashion show, and to all the people who were a big help in the making! Good job everybody!

Several of our teen girls wanted to visit the shops and there were several Primark bags to load on to the coaches as we returned to XUK late this afternoon!  Sadly, when we got back there were a few drops of rain which meant we had to eat our BBQ dinner inside – however, it didn’t stop the staff v kids football match……..we won’t talk too much about this as the staff didn’t do too well!!  A rematch is on the cards!!

Cookery with Amy & SteveOn Friday the 5th of August, one of our team leaders, Amy, led in helping the kids prepare a traditional British oat bar made with sweet syrup and oats. Assisted by Steve - another team leader -everyone had a fantastic time baking, from scratch, flapjacks!One of the last activities for one of our students, Vepa -from Turkmenistan, who left earlier this morning (Tuesday, the 9th) - had a great time preparing and eating the sweet snack!Anastasia melting chocolate on the stove[Vepa, enjoying the process

Anastasia, Maria & Tomoki

Eating the end result!!

Earlier that day, we had a special activity for the kids which was volcano making. The kids had a great time playing with the materials and posing for the camera – as you can see below:

Ilay from Israel & Umut from Turkey, who left on Sunday morning, making their volcanoes

Matteo (left) from France & Reuben from Italy having fun!

Saturday nights are always fun, but not as much fun as when prizes, awards and talent are involved! This past Saturday night, we had all of that and more! Not only did the kids show us their stuff…but some staff did too! We had magic tricks, yo-yo moves, hand stands, singing and dancing!
First Umut, showed us his amazing yo-yo talent and had everyone applauding and cheering for more…Next their was Sofya, who had first played assistant to Umut, but was now asking for his help as she wowed the crowd!

Umut (right) & Sofya, from Russia, showing us their yo-yo tricks

Then there was Adyl, who also showed us an amazing hand stand trick: Walking backwards that is! Then we had the Samba, which was led and instructed by Christina, one of our EAL teachers from Brazil. Several of our teenage girls enjoyed the dance, and then also the encore which was requested by a member of staff!

Christina (far right) with her teenage girls

Proceeding the “Samba”, one of our EAL teachers, Miss Lisa, was asked to sing a song for the show. She sang to Duffy’s “Mercy” on karaoke, and the kids cheered for their American teacher!

Miss Lisa singing

The kids finished up the show with hand tricks, hand stands and loads of hand clapping! But the highlight, as is every Saturday night, was the star and team of the week. This past week, we awarded Tomoki, 11 from Japan, as star student of the week, and the green team won team of the week! Congratulations to both Tomoki and the green team!

Certificates for departers of the week with our camp manager, Niall

The rest of the night was its usual Saturday night fun.

Singing "Happy Birthday" to Arseyni, from Russia, who turned 15 last week!

The music was particularly good, with a special blast from the past for the staff: “The Macarena”! The kids and staff all stood together in a circle and began the choreographed dance from long ago!
The kids and staff all equally had a fantastic night and were sad to say goodbye to those departing the following day. But, so happy we still have another exciting week ahead of us with the remaining students!

XUK
Heathrow: ARRIVED at XUK
Gatwick: ARRIVED at XUK
Stansted: ARRIVED at XUK
Luton: ARRIVED at XUK
Transfer from XUK English: ARRIVED at XUK
St Pancras: ARRIVED at XUK
Finchley: ARRIVED at XUK

XUK English
Heathrow: ARRIVED at XUK English

It’s been a disco to remember tonight with some great tunes from Josh G and Josh S – Josh S making a return to XUK for the weekend to visit us!  It’s been great to see him!  It was rock night tonight at the show and we saw some incredible performances including Mattias with his juggling, Sarah and Bex’s dorm with a great dance and some very tuneful singing by lots of our campers and leaders.

Tomorrow is a departures and arrivals day so watch this space for more info and updates!

At 8:30 AM the kids and staff – and all of our full tummies from the delicious big breakfast – boarded the coach headed for London. Our day of sight-seeing, museum touring and souvenir shopping began at the embankment, where half the students and leaders were dropped off (unfortunately) in the rain, and they began their tour of the more famous sights, such as the London Eye, Buckingham Palace and Trafalgar Square, among others.

Trafalgar Square

The other half of the group stayed on the coach, and made their way to the science museum, and later on to Harrods department store to do some shopping.
The science museum was full of interesting displays throughout history, and the children especially enjoyed the interactive activities, and of course the souvenir shopping to be found.

Science Museum

At 2 PM we accidently found ourselves in front of the monument dedicated to Prince Albert upon his death.

Prince Albert's Memorial

Between 2:30 and 4:45, the children in the second half of the group were giddy beyond measure to be inside of one of the most famous department stores in the world! Of course, this was not the reason for their excitement. More certainly than not, it was because of all the toys they found inside of the world-renowned store!

Harrods

Adyl, Alvaro, Ilay, Tomoki

Teddy bears, video games, Barbie, magic tricks, candy/sweets, figurines, cards and legos were just some of the many toys that caught the eye of each of the kids, and some of the staff was impressed as well…
While the second half of the group was enjoying their magic show and serious shopping excursion, the first half of the group were on the other side of the city having tea with the Queen! Well not quite, but the Queen was there at the same time as our students! At Buckingham Palace, they witnessed the flag fully raised, to indicate that the Queen was in at that time.

Although it rained extensively throughout the day, the weather did not dampen the mood of the kids, and they enjoyed their entire day in London as everyone had hoped they would! From Harrods, the second half of the kids and staff were treated to a red double-decker bus ride to dinner! The special treat of the day was some yummy pizza, pop and salad at Pizza Hut, and all the kids were happy to sit with those they had not seen all day long, and talk about what they’d seen and done!

Niall and James in front of Pizza Hut

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The coaches picked us up at 7:30 PM and we were back at our camp in Ipswich by 9:30. The kids had a good night’s sleep when they got back from their long day of walking, shopping, talking, eating and sight seeing! And while they rested that night for the following day to learn English in the classroom, they all thought about the hands on English they got during the day in London!